The First Two Chapters

I have already read this book, so naturally everything I say is from the view-point of someone who has already read this book. The way the author starts off chapter one is very fascinating. I grew up in Athens, so it is interesting to hear someone from another culture describe it...I especially loved the mention of potholes. Zakes Mda does an excellent job at describing things; however,-as you will all probably realize by the end of the book-he could have spared me an inward seizure caused by my trying to wipe away those images and not have described some of those things that he felt were necessary to describe. I love that chapter one was set during Halloween. Mda mentions everything Athens is famous for in one chapter and in a non-boring way: The ridges, the block party, the politicians, the college, the bricks, the potholes and the spirit. In chapter two, we go back to the days of the underground railroad and I wonder how accurate this is. Did things like that really happen? I confess that I am lost in a fog of fiction and non-fiction and I cannot tell the two apart. What was exaggerated and what was based on real facts? Regardless of fact or fiction, chapter two was an interesting read. I have mixed feelings about this book.